Tour milestone in Montpellier as Impey takes yellow jersey

German powerhouse Andre Greipel won his first stage of this year’s Tour de France, coming home ahead of Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) after yesterday’s 176-kilometre run from Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier.

The sixth stage of this year’s race looked a rather straightforward one but strong winds buffeted the riders from all sides and saw the first major splits of the race appear, while the crashes that have marred the race showed no signs of abating either.

Mark Cavendish was the biggest casualty as he came down hard in the final hour of racing and though he remounted and got back into the peloton, that effort seemed to take from his finishing kick and he had to settle for fourth place on the stage.